The Weepers: The Other Life by Susanne Winnacker

3 years, 1 month, 1 week and 6 days since I’d seen daylight. One-fifth of my life.

Sherry and her family have lived sealed in a bunker in the garden since things went wrong up above. Her grandfather has been in the freezer for the last three months, her parents are at each other’s throats and two minutes ago they ran out of food.

Sherry and her father leave the safety of the bunker and find a devastated and empty LA, smashed to pieces by bombs and haunted by ‘Weepers’ - rabid humans infected with a weaponized rabies virus.

While searching for food in a supermarket, Sherry’s father disappears and Sherry is saved by Joshua, a boy-hunter. He takes her to Safe-haven, a tumble-down vineyard in the hills outside LA, where a handful of other survivors are picking up the pieces of their ‘other lives’. As she falls in love for the first time, Sherry must save her father, stay alive and keep Joshua safe when his desire for vengeance threatens them all.

Sherry had been living in a bunker with her family for 3 years, but now they have run out of food and she and her father must leave the safety of the bunker and search for food or they will die of hunger. Their radio isn´t working so they don´t know what is happening outside, 3 years ago there was an outbreak of a virus called "rabies" that attacked the population, so the non-infected people were forced to take shelter in bunkers and not leave until the outbreak has been controlled. The government was supposed to notify them once the "rabies" was contained, but it´s been 3 months since the last transmission.

So Sherry and her dad leave the bunker to look for food and while searching for food in a wal-mart they´re attacked and they end up getting separated. Sherry is rescued by Joshua and he takes her outside of the city to a safe house, but Sherry feels guilty for having left her father and with the help of Joshua, they will seek him and try to rescue him from "the weepers".

The book is told from Sherry point of view, she´s a 15 year-old girl that has been counting the days, months and years since she entered the bunker, in fact she counts everything, how long had been since she last saw the sun, ate an apple, saw her best friend, this could be tiring for the reader, but it works in the story. I liked the character of Joshua.

Ohh and the weepers, they used to be human, but lost their humanity because of the virus. When I started reading the book I thought they were regular zombies, but apparently they´re smart, predators (I haven´t read many books with zombies in it) and really creepy.

The Weepers : The Other Life is a post-apocalyptic novel with some conspiracy theory. And the end of the story has a twist that got me hooked for the next book The Life Beyond.

Yes, I loved this book!

Thanks to Marshall Cavendish and Netgalley for the opportunity to read this book.

Quotes:

"Aren´t you afraid? She told me that you´ve been injured before. The could kill you."
"Sometimes, when I hunt them at night and feel them lurking in the shadows, waiting to attack, I´m afraid." He shrugged. "But then I think of everything they´ve done and about the people I might save, and anger wins over fear. They are killers. Sleep, eat, kill - it´s all they do"

"Those times are over. No one cares about manners anymore. They´re too busy surviving."